- Increasing the spread of Component Pascal

From: [at]} <Rex>
Date: Wed, 24 May 2006 11:18:18 -0500

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At 05:15 PM 5/23/06 -0400, Wojtek Skulski wrote:
>On Tue, 23 May 2006, Rex Couture wrote:
>
>> "Programs" running under the BB environment serve only a very small fraction
>> of potential end users.

>Are you saing that the majority of potential end users need non-GUI
>standalone programs?

        Very few computer users use BB GUI programs. Most use standalone
applications.


>> It should be possible to create a freestanding executable with one or
>> two keystrokes, and the linker should not link unusued code.
>> In practice, it is exceedingly difficult to create an .exe file, and
>> that .exe file will likely consist mostly of unused code.

>A while ago OMS sent me an example of how to link a small .exe file
>in order to test the DLL loading. The example consisted of four WinApi
>calls executed in sequence. None of the BB framework was linked. The
>executable was built with one keystroke and its size was 4 kB. This is
>about as small as the executable can get.

>...As the DLL test program has shown, BB is fully capable
of doing such things....

        In general, neither the Linker nor the Packer nor "Create Tool" can
find all the modules and resources that are needed to build a working
executable. It's easy if you only import WinApi; otherwise, it's much more
difficult. If you're trying to spread BB, that's a serious problem. With
luck, maybe it's only a documentation problem.

        [Gerard Meunier helped me with a more complete example. Maybe I'll
post that separately.]

        And it links EVERYTHING, including extraneous modules, whether the
code is needed or not. Examples that import only WinApi will create small
executables. For other programs, the examples I have seen are 700 kB and
up. A smart linker might not be a bad idea if you value small executables.


>> [statements and responses rearranged for clarity]

>> BB lacks standard I/O libraries....
>> ...Portability is undeniably needed, yet BB cannot even read or write an
>> integer with portable code ....
>> ...There are the Oakwood standards, but BB ignores them. They are only
>> ... partially implemented in BB, by a third party.

>Strongly disagreed. BB has I/O libraries that are "standard"
>in the sense of being a "standard" part of the framework.
>... How can you say "cannot even read or write an
>integer with portable code" if BB itself is not portable (yet)?

        I was a little imprecise. C has stdio, and a program built with
that will compile and run on any C compiler. The same cannot be said about
CP. I think it's a problem if you are totally dependent on a nonportable
framework.

Rex Couture

--- BlackBox
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Received on Wed May 24 2006 - 18:18:18 UTC

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